About Me

Hello world, I'm Amanda!

I'm 31 years old and I live in San Francisco with my husband, Duncan and my kitty-cat, Blaire. I work as a project manager for an environmental consulting firm overseeing site investigations and remediation for properties affected by chemical or hydrocarbon contamination. I grew up in Minnesota, lived in Colorado for 3 years after college, then spent 3 years in Orange County, CA and finally landed in San Francisco just over two years ago. If you ever need moving advice, I'm you're girl! Ha!

I've pretty much always been the "bigger" one of my friends even when I was super active in sports in high school. I'll be the first to admit that healthy eating and exercise habits were not a priority in my family. Most of our functions revolved around food and I can't remember a time my family went out and did something active like a hike or 5k. It wasn't until I left the nest and went off to college that I realized people actually watched their weight, worked out, and invested time in how their bodies looked. I yo-yo dieted throughout college with a relatively steady weight in the 220s. Once I left college, I was really focused on my first job and working out and watching my diet kind of took a back seat and I gained about 30 pounds in 2 years. I was pretty steady at 250 for a few years, but once we moved to California, my weight really started to balloon until I ended up over 300 pounds!

In July 2012, I joined Weight Watchers for the first time. I was really motivated and had such a wonderful WW leader! I lost 23 pounds in 4 months and was so excited with my progress! I had found my routine, was working out regularly, and was trying a lot of new WW inspired recipes. WW, for the first time, made me feel like losing the weight was actually possible. Everything was going splendidly until my husband came home from work one day and announced that he had gotten an interview for a job in San Francisco. Needless to say, he ended up getting the job and we ended up moving. The stress of the move (if any of you have ever looked for an apartment in San Francisco, you know what a tear-filled process it can be), the stress of transferring for my job, and just the unknowns of a new city pushed me completely off track and I floundered for over a year!

I re-joined WW online this past February (2015) and went back to meetings in August. I've also found support through Instagram and a lovely group of ladies I met there. Since rejoining WW, I have lost 50lbs and 3 dress sizes. It has been a remarkable experience thus far, but I still have a long way to go.

In my free time, I enjoy hiking or spending time at the beach. I love reading and crocheting (both of which I lead Meetups for in the San Francisco area)! I enjoy spending time with my husband and friends...going out to dinner, happy hours, and exploring this amazing city (Go Giants!). Lastly, i love to travel, go new places, and try new things! 

I'm on this journey to lose weight, gain confidence, and get healthy. Weight is the one piece of the life-puzzle I have yet to solve and I know it negatively affects so many aspects of my life. As my very wise first WW leader always said, "now is the time to make the change...the time will pass anyway." Stop wishing, start doing...and let's see what we can achieve!